Week 6: I Don’t Think I Understood This Week’s Reading and at This Point I’m Too Afraid to Ask
So the reading this week covered… a lot, but one thing I think was interesting was the discussion of hypermasculine characters. Burrill says that video games provide the players with the chance to inhabit “the transcendent male,” but from my point of view I haven’t found that with Joel in The Last of Us. Perhaps it is my point of view skewing my perception of Joel or allowing me to see past a relatively stereotypically masculine exterior, but instead of coming across as a “transcendent male,” he just comes across as an old, tired man to me. He has trouble lifting things, he gets into petty arguments with his teenage companion, and the fact that I am so bad at this game means that I have to watch his old man self be killed on the regular. Am I secretly playing out my own suppressed homoerotic sadomasochistic desires? I personally feel self-aware enough to say no, but maybe I’m wrong. If Joel is meant to be a portrayal of the “transcendent male,” then what characteristics would (male) consumers be observing as traits to emulate? Suppression of any emotions? A slowly strengthening parental love for the snarky teenagers in your life? That sexy, sexy silverfox lumberjack look?
I think this raises the question of whether or not we the players relate or want to relate to Joel on a more superficial level in addition to a deeper emotional one. As I spend hours playing this game attempting to get Joel to his final goal, of course I start to emotionally sympathize with him, but should I want to be him as well? Is that even what this week’s reading was about? Who knows? Not me.
